What is the Color of Love?

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Welcome
to the Color of Love Blog Hop. It’s that
time of the year where we celebrate our love for characters of color in
romantic fiction. So how did I start reading multicultural romance?

Those
who know me well also know that I started reading romances while I was in
primary school. In those days, the only romances available in Jamaica were published
by Mills
& Boon & Harlequin. All of them were stories about Caucasian people—mega-rich
men and timid females.

It wasn't until I was
an adult (I'm talking a mere ten years ago) that I realized that there were
romance novels that had people in them who looked like me. We might not have
lived in the same environment or shared the same culture, but those books were
a source of fascination. The ones that readily accessible were those written by
Francis Ray and Beverly Jenkins, and even then, they didn't make regular
appearances in the bookstores.

Since that time,
things have changed in a big way. In the last year alone, most of what I have
read are romances that feature people of colour, which is still a refreshing
change for me. Thanks to social media, I have met some good writers, who
continue to put out wonderful stories about black people finding love.

Thanks for stopping
in. There are some interesting giveaways, so be sure to enter to win on the
Rafflecopter.

Yes, Joy, I remember covering under the sheets to read Mills & Boon & Harlequin books. I wrote my first romance story/screenplay at 15 going on 16 and my second at 17. Got inspiration from those books. I left the drafts in Jamaica as I didn't think I would continue to write in Canada. "Writing is not a career, right? It's fantasy world." Well, Gilbert (hurricane) came and destroyed them, but I still have the third story/screenplay I wrote in Canada, when I was 18. Writing remained in my soul.

I love romance of all colour. I have several authors of colour if we must make a distinction--I adore Dorothy Koomson and recently have been getting hooked by Lesley Lokko, especially her novel Bitter Chocolate which was set in Haiti, Ghana, London and the US. So excellent. I always love learning about other cultures through fiction as well as non-fiction. I've learnt quite a lot about Jamaica by reading your novels which is great.

I've been offline a lot and didn't see this bloghop (or any others, lol!)